Don't do it!
Don't start it playing if you want to keep
This Christmas party to ourselves, my boy.
The men are mad with drink and--other things.
Look here, Michael, what are we going to do
About this youngster, eh?

MICHAEL
Better keep quiet
Till morning. When the men have slept it off
They'll stand a better chance of slipping away.

NANKO
O, what a pity, Subka! I did think
That we should have some music. Well--I know!
Tell us the Christmas piece you learned in school.
That's right! Stand there! No! Stand up on the bench.
Your mother tells me that you won the prize
For learning it so beautifully, Subka.
That's right. These good kind gentlemen shall hear
Your Christmas piece.

SUBKA
It's about the first Christmas.
[_Her hands behind her as if in school, she obeys him._]
She laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord